Civil Service Examinations

Civil Service and 375 Members

The bulk of Local 375 members work in civil service titles subject to examinations in New York City. The union represents both workers who are "permanent," i.e., who have passed the civil service test for the title they are serving in, and workers who are "provisional," i.e., who have not passed the civil service test for the title they are serving in and were appointed provisionally to their job. The current NYC Civil Service rules and regulations as well as the NYC Personnel rules and regulation are under the “Employee & Agency Resources” tab, which can be found on the DCAS website. The Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) administers civil service law. Information on civil service exams, exam applications and deadlines are all available on their website.

When a civil service exam is given, a list is established afterwards from which city agencies hire. The list consists of all those who passed the test, ranked by their scores. New York State Civil Service Law requires agencies to utilize the list when they are hiring for that title, and requires them to consider the top three scorers remaining on this list; this is known as the “one-in-three rule”. Once a list is established, it remains in effect for one year, and can be extended for up to three additional years.

Provisional employees have no tenure rights. They may be initially appointed to their jobs if there is no list in effect at the time, but when a list is established following a test, agencies are required to hire from the list, and provisional may lose their jobs as permanent civil servants are hired off the list.

There are two types of exams: "promotional exams" are open to those who hold a permanent civil service title in the same promotional line (e.g., someone who has Assistant Engineering title would be eligible to take the full Engineering title for their specialty Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical etc. if they also had all other requirements for that title e.g. PE)."Open competitive exams" are open to anyone regardless of civil service title (there are still educational and other requirements). Local 375 strongly urges eligible provisional members to take a promotional exam for the title in which they are serving as soon as possible. We urge those without any civil service title to take an open competitive e exam for the civil service title in direct line for promotion into their 375 titles.